Approximately one-third of the drugs in the United States Pharmacopoeia are water-insoluble or poorly water-soluble. Many currently available injectable formulations of such drugs carry important adverse warnings on their labels that originate from detergents and other agents used for their solubilization. Oral formulations of water-insoluble drugs or compounds with biological uses frequently show poor and erratic bioavailability or require inordinately large quantities of excipient relative to active pharmaceutical ingredient. In addition, water-solubility problems delay or completely block the development of many new drugs and other biologically useful compounds.